Showing results by author "Andrew Bayliss" in All Categories

A major new history of ancient Greece’s most iconic city-state. For thousands of years, the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta has been famed as the ultimate warrior society. The flowing crimson capes and bronze shields of Spartan warriors remain the enduring image of masculine bravery...

The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, considered an enigma. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. But the truth behind these stories of the exotic other can be hard to discover, lost amongst the legend of Sparta which was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. As Andrew Bayliss explores in this book, there was also much to admire in ancient Sparta.